I came here to ask if anyone else is reading “Frictionless: 7 Steps to Remove Barriers, Unlock Value, and Outpace Your Competition in the AI Era” by Nicole Forsgren and Abi Noda.
I’m really resonating with a lot of it and would love to chat with others who are reading it too
Not yet. I think I came across it only last week. Would be great to read your insights when you finish it, or even now while you are in progress.
At the moment, I am reading The design of everyday things by Don Norman that is having a lot of parallels with testing, test design and how we develop software systems. Although, it’s 20 years old book, but somehow still relevant.
I’m pretty awful at writing up thoughts on book reviews - but already I have found a lot of quotable moments in this book.
I kind of expect book groups like the one that @jesper has been a part on to take on this book at some point, as it feels super relevant.
Also, I’m not opposed to more book group kind of initiatives. I would appreciate the accountability and incentive to dive into more things.
I am reading “Twenty things you need to know” by Donald J Wheeler with the Profound Book Club. It answers a lot of questions about using statistics to understand your process. I will write a review when I have read it.
Sure, no pressure at all Chris. Maybe we can start a reading group on MoT in a format that is joyful and also encourages deep dive with no pressure, but from curiosity standpoint.
Let me have a think. I have an idea to write reviews on technical books in my blog. So having a discussion group could be a nice addition.
Yeah - it’s a really nice idea. I typically work better in a more conversational format and would certainly enjoy some sort of book group, I think.
I’d be super interested in seeing any book reviews you do publish though, so please do share links when you do.
It’s on the top of the list for the new year - do join! The meetings are indeed conversational
updated with joining link
What if we had ‘Books’ as a content type and you could add comments/quotes to it as motes/notes.
A GoodReads, of sorts, but for the MoTaverse.
I often copy snippets, or take notes of short memorable ideas, for example, and I could imagine that being useful, even if it is just for us to refer back to ourselves in the future.
I think that would be awesome!
Can’t see a group on that link?
‘Taking Testing Seriously’ by James Bach and Michael Bolton is out but I’d like to see some unbiased reviews before I commit - I am hoping they dial it back with the Greek philosophy references personally and just get on with testing but perhaps that comes with the territory!
Right, its out. But also hard to get the hard cover currently, if you are not in the USA.
You mean biased towards another direction. 
I get that you want reviews from people who are not that next to authors.
For transparency: While I did not contributed directly to the book, I’m listed in the acknowledgements.
Well, unbiased in the sense that they participate in other forums perhaps and seem like rounded individuals - I’m guessing most people dropping £45 on a book are somewhat aware of the RST approach but I make it a point to take any Amazon review with large pinches of salt, for example. Am impressed with your last point 
Thanks.
I did not want to brag, but make transparent that I’m biased towards the authors.
With that said, have you got a copy yet and what are your thoughts if so? After reading the book would a one-man-band tester be able to put together a strategy document, estimate test effort based on available documentation and start testing? Is this ‘Clean Code’ for testers?
No hard cover so far as the delivery in Germany / Europe is estimated for end of December. Looks like there are issues.
I think about buying a digital, but would want to have physical. Also its a lot of money for me currently and I have to wait for the Christmas bonus to afford it. Nearly zero raises made effectively me losing real wage. Which hits hard with a family.
By what I know from James and Michael I would assume yes. They already have much free content about this and I assume they put a reworked version in the book.
I cannot give a clear assumption about that. From what I know from them they mostly reject estimations of testing. Their most next concept to this are the boxes of Session Based Test-Management.
I could also be wrong and they include something, but my gut doubts it.
Also I by myself doubt many ways of estimating testing effort. There might be some “thin” ones.
I expect for myself a yes, because I see very basic topics which others ignore.
Also testing as highly social task can be seen different by different people. There is no “objective” truth comparable to Clean Code.
I will give here a review once I have the book, but it might take at least weeks for different reasons.
link updated! Join DevOps, AI & Beyond Book Club | Bookclubs
I have a copy ordered, I remain a fan of “Lessons learned in software testing” and that had a significant impact on my testing and the way I explain testing to others at the time so I am looking forward to this.
I do get your point though and I also posted somewhere that I am also oddly hoping for some negative reviews but not in a bad way, more in a way that the booking reaches the broader community and its not so much a case of preaching to the choir.
I tend to view things from the aspect that there are very different models of testing, different testing missions etc and those have a significant impact on how testing is viewed with often the main one’s being testing to confirm or verify and testing to learn and discover. I have a significant bias towards the latter mainly because its just so much more fun but the testing to confirm model is still massively mainstream. When the discover model makes so much sense to me I want others to at least be aware of that model even if they make a decision its a bit overly optimistic lala land view of testing and they have their Ai agents quickly finding the basic issues which they deem as faster and good enough.
The broader audience for this book I believe (not read yet, in post) is key to having a lasting impact.
I asked James and he got replied by his contact that they “just” underestimated the demand in Europe and they are already reprinting the book. This may take a while. I have no further insights.